No New Words - A Conversation About Faithfulness in a Moment of Geopolitical Flux

This conversation started with an apology sent to me via email from a friend, and former office mate, named Allen Calhoun. Allen’s apology concerned certain tensions existing between the United States and Canada. Part of my reply to Allen’s apology email was that he is not the one that needs to be saying sorry, but there was something about the motivations behind his heartfelt gesture that prompted me to ask the following: what if this email signalled an opportunity for us to get our other two former office mates together to hit record and talk about these geopolitical tensions out in the open—just as we used to when we were back in Aberdeen, Scotland, working on our research projects, and taking periodic breaks to have the kinds of discussions that you’re about to be thrown into?

As you’ll discover, this conversation features the perspectives of two Christians living in America, one Christian living in Canada, and one Christian living in Ireland. The one from Ireland—Kevin Hargaden—takes on the role of host, and mediator, for the Americans (Allen and David Lilley) and the Canadian (me), and in doing so, creates a bit of time and space for all of us to live out, in real time, a truly Personalist conversation; one that seeks to find our common personhood in a moment when the personhood of the ‘other’ is being denied more-and-more, and with devastating results.

It all culminates in some final words from Kevin that hit the proverbial nail on the head: if we’re looking for a way out of the geopolitical predicaments we find ourselves in, it all comes down to faithfulness in a moment of flux.

Bios

Allen Calhoun worked as a tax lawyer after obtaining a JD from the Notre Dame Law School and an LLM in taxation from Washington University in St. Louis. He received an MTh and then a PhD in theological ethics from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and has taught courses in taxation, philosophy, and ethics. He is the author of Tax Law, Religion, and Justice: An Exploration of Theological Reflections on Taxation, and has contributed chapters and articles on topics ranging from the religious origins of the welfare state to aspects of Protestant social teaching and the place of taxation in political theologies. He was a McDonald Distinguished Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University from 2019 until 2024 and currently works as a tax law editor and independent scholar.

Kevin Hargaden is the Director and Social Theologian of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice (www.jcfj.ie) in Dublin, Ireland. He has degrees in Computer Science, Sociology, and Theology. He did his PhD at the University of Aberdeen under the supervision of Brian Brock and Stanley Hauerwas, studying the theological implications of the collapse of the Irish "Celtic Tiger" economy. He is the author of numerous popular and academic publications including Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age (Cascade, 2018).

David Lilley is a Pastor for the United Methodist Church in Tennessee. He is an adjunct professor at the Belmont University's Theology & Christian Ministry School. He completed a PhD at the University of Aberdeen, focusing on Sabbath and theological ethics in Karl Barth’s doctrine of creation.

Allen

Tax Law, Religion, and Justice: https://www.routledge.com/Tax-Law-Religion-and-Justice-An-Exploration-of-Theological-Reflections-on-Taxation/Calhoun/p/book/9780367713478?cjevent=bfdbdd8e1b8d11f0807a00a80a82b836

Kevin

Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age: https://wipfandstock.com/9781532655

David

At The Invitation of God Who Rests: https://abdn.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990017334780205941&context=L&vid=44ABE_INST%3A44ABE_VU1&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any%2Ccontains%2Cdavid%20lilley%20rest&offset=0